BEVERLY HILLS (MI) -- For those of you who pay attention to minutiae such as datelines, your eyes do not deceive you. Since its inception “FTS” columns were posted from Beverly Hills until we moved to West Bloomfield eighteen months ago. We are now back in the 48025 in a nice ranch about a mile from where we used to reside.

When you are living out of boxes (or packing them) you tend to rely on fast food joints for sustenance. A recent trip to Mickey D’s found me waiting for fifteen minutes at the “third window” (AKA the penalty box) for a grilled chicken sandwich. I went into the counter to remind them that I was still there. When my food came the small order of fries had been upgraded to a large and they threw in an apple pie.

A visit to Subway the next night was even more painful. The woman in front of me was ordering two foot longs and wanted every single vegetable known to man piled on to each one in varying amounts. I assured the young lady behind the counter (who was by herself) that my order would be much easier to prepare. When she went to ring me up, her register told her that she had to do a cash drop i.e., count all of the money in her till before she could complete my transaction. That took 10 minutes. When she was finally done she told me “I’m not charging you for your drink or your cookies.”

Moral of the story:Sometimes good things can come out of crappy situations.

And so it is with the UD Flyers, losers of their last three hoops encounters.

If you go back to their first game in the Bahamas vs. Butler, by all rights the Red & Blue should be oh for their last four.

The Sons of Anthony Grant then proceeded to give #4 UVA all they could handle and actually had a 7-point 2nd half lead vs. Oklahoma before eventually losing. Back on the mainland, UD battled tooth and nail with #25 Mississippi State despite the absence of Jhery Matos and with a less-than-100% Josh Cunningham.

The general consensus being that while losing sucks and there are no moral victories, playing squads like these four (and the upcoming tilt on Saturday @ #8 Auburn) can only pay dividends when the A-10 schedule commences in January.

If you don’t think that the Flyers are hanging tough, consider this quote from MSU coach Ben Howland after the game:

"I was really questioning what I was thinking by scheduling Dayton," Howland said. "I told him when I shook his hand that we're not playing them anymore."

The good news is that the guys don’t have to sit around and stew about the Ls as they get right back to it vs. Detroit Mercy on Tuesday evening at UD Arena: